GIGABYTE P55-UD6 Motherboard Review :: Bundle

Board

8-pin power

MOSFET heatsink

Solid capacitors

Starting with the upper right hand corner we find the 8-pin power connector. Some of the P55 chipset manufacturers use 4-pin power on their boards but GIGABYTE has decided to go the tried and true 8-pin power route. Below the 8-pin power connector is the MOSFET heatsink. This is connected to another MOSFET heatsink via a heatpipe. Under the MOSFETs is the VRM power circuitry.

LGA-1156

CPU Socket area

Memory

Back of board

The CPU Socket is the new LGA-1156 Socket. The CPU itself is installed by lifting the lever away from the cover, lifting the cover and inserting the LGA-1156 Core i7 or i5 CPU into the Socket, making sure to align the notches with the Socket and apply thermal paste on top of the CPU. The next step is to lower the cover making sure the prongs surround the screw and lower the lever locking the CPU into place.

Intel P55 Express chip

ITE chip

DualBIOS

24-pin power

Below the CPU Socket is a rarity in the P55 market, six DIMM slots. One thing to note is that the LGA-1156 CPUs only support dual-channel memory architecture. You can install up to 16GB of memory in the P55-UD6 motherboard clocked at up to DDR3 2600+/2200/1333/1066/800MHz when the CPU is overclocked. The P55 chipset supports Intel’s Extreme Memory Profile.

Heatpipe

FP IO

LED

CPUFan

The bottom right edge of the motherboard is where the 24-pin power connector is located on the P55-UD6 motherboard. To the right of the 24-pin power is an ITE chip. There is a System Fan header next to the 24-pin power connector. To the left of the SATA ports is a LED giving status numbers at boot. Normal operation has the motherboard at a FF state.

USB Headers

FDD

SysFan header

ITE chip 2

The left edge of the board starts off with a multi-colored Front Panel connection. Each connector is labeled and color coded, meaning that the user is less likely to mix up the connections. Two USB headers follow the FP. An IEEE-1394 header provides support for Firewire on the board. To the left of the FDD connector is a COMA header. Another ITE chip is on top of the board.

Expansion

PCH Fan header

COMA

Texas Instruments chip

Expansion on the board is quite extensive with three PCI Express x16 slots, two PCI Express x1 slots and two PCI slots. The first PCI Express x16 slot runs at x16 mode when a single card is installed. If two cards are installed in the first and second slot, they run at x8/x8 mode. The third PCI Express x16 slot runs at x4 mode. The P55-UD6 supports 2-way SLI and 3-way CrossfireX.

SATA

IDE

Power button

ALC889A

The board has 10 onboard SATA ports with six controlled by the Intel P55 Express chipset. Two further SATA ports are controlled by a GIGABYTE SATA2 chip which also controls the IDE connector. There are two JMB362 chips that support the external SATA connectors and the remaining SATA devices on the board. The Intel chip supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. The GIGABYTE chip supports RAID 0, 1, and JBOD. The FDD connector is controlled by an ITE8720 chip.

Audio

Audio driver

Onboard sound is provided by the venerable Realtek ALC889A CODEC that has been found on many motherboards over the years. This CODEC supports the High Definition Audio standard with support for 7.1+2 channel Multi-streaming audio via the FP. The CODEC supports S/PDIF In/Out, Dolby Home Theater, and CD In. The ALC889A is an excellent onboard audio solution.

FP Audio

RTL8111D

Coupon

I/O

The Rear I/O on the board consists of a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port, a coaxial S/PDIF Out connector, a optical S/PDIF Out connector, two IEEE-1394 ports, 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports, two external SATA/USB Combo connectors, two RJ-45 ports and 6 audio jacks for the onboard audio. The inclusion of a PS/2 connector allows those with legacy PS/2 mice or keyboards to use this board. The RJ-45 jacks for the onboard LAN are controlled by two RTL8111D chips and supports Teaming and Smart Dual LAN.